itch
/ɪt͡ʃ/ noun, verb
Forms itches itching itched
- noun A sensation felt on an area of the skin that causes a person or animal to want to scratch said area.
- noun A constant teasing desire or want.
- verb (intransitive, stative) To feel itchy; to feel a need to be scratched.
- verb (intransitive) To have a constant, teasing urge; to feel strongly motivated; to want or desire something. “He started learning to drive and he has been itching for opportunities to practice ever since.”
- verb (transitive) To cause to feel an itch.
- verb (transitive, colloquial) To scratch or rub so as to relieve an itch.
Synonyms
yuck yuik yeuk scabies urge itchiness itching rub scratch spoil
Etymology
From Middle English icche, ȝicche, from Old English ġiċċe (“itch”), from Proto-Germanic *jukjǭ (“itch”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots yeuk (“itch, itchiness”), Dutch jeuk (“itch”), German jucken.
From Middle English icchen, ȝicchen, from Old English ġiċċan, ġyċċan (“to itch”), from Proto-West Germanic *jukkjan (“to itch”), of unknown origin. Cognate with Scots yeuk (“to itch”), West Frisian jûkje (“to itch”), Dutch jeuken (“to itch”), Low German jocken (“to itch”), German jucken (“to itch”).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To have an uneasy sensation in the skin, which inclines the person to scratch the part affected.
- verb To have a constant desire or teasing uneasiness; to long for; as, itching ears. "An itching palm." Shak.
- noun An eruption of small, isolated, acuminated vesicles, produced by the entrance of a parasitic mite (the Sarcoptes scabei), and attended with itching. It is transmissible by contact.
- noun Any itching eruption.
Etymology [OE. icchen, , AS. giccan; akin to D. jeuken, joken, G. jucken, OHG. jucchen.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “itch”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details